OP SmartDesk - Customer Support Made Easy. » IT Standards

OP Software Joins NAACE

ICTNUT — Sun, 23 May 2010 12:32:49 +0000

OP Software is proud to announce that it now a member of NAACE (The National Association for Advisors in Computer Education) and is currently under going assessment for the NaaceMark Quality Assurance for Service Providers (NMSP 2.0)

This is great news as it is yet another independant pointer that we as a company are committed to providing the best services we can to education.

More information about NAACE can be found here – http://www.naace.co.uk/about

Online Tracker Now Live

ICTNUT — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:21:52 +0000

We have made public our online tracker which will allows users of our software the ability to see what is coming in future releases as well as the chance to suggest thier own enhancements or features.

The change log shows what has been fixed or added for each furture release as well as an estimated release date.

The tracker can be found here: http://tracker.opsoftware.net/

Feedback on this new service is welcomed and we look forward to seeing your feature requests

VIDEO: FITS use in schools

ICTNUT — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:56:22 +0000

See what others have to say about FITS in schools.

OP Software IPhone Support !

ICTNUT — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:25:46 +0000

You can now browse the OP Software Blog directly from your IPhone.

Simply open your Safari browser and point it at www.opsoftware.net, easy !

Read blogs and post comments / replies directly from the comfort of your IPhone.

What is ITIL?

ICTNUT — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:41:25 +0000

ITIL® is the only consistent and comprehensive documentation of best practice for IT Service Management. Used by thousands of organisations around the world, a whole ITIL philosophy has grown up around the guidance contained within the ITIL books and the supporting professional qualification scheme.

ITIL consists of a series of books giving guidance on the provision of quality IT services, and on the accommodation and environmental facilities needed to support IT. ITIL has been developed in recognition of organisations’ growing dependency on IT and embodies best practices for IT Service Management.

The ethos behind the development of ITIL is the recognition that organisations are becoming increasingly dependent on IT in order to satisfy their corporate aims and meet their business needs. This leads to an increased requirement for high quality IT services.

Overview and Benefits
ITIL provides a systematic and professional approach to the management of IT service provision. Adopting its guidance offers users a huge range of benefits that include:

reduced costs
improved IT services through the use of proven best practice processes
improved customer satisfaction through a more professional approach to service delivery
standards and guidance
improved productivity
improved use of skills and experience
improved delivery of third party services through the specification of ITIL or ISO 20000 as the standard for service delivery in services procurements.

Source: ITIL Official Website

What is FITS?

ICTNUT — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 21:36:51 +0000

FITS stands for Framework for ICT Technical Support. It aims to provide a complete structure so that we know that all aspects of technical support will be addressed. It is a collection of best practice processes from IT support providers all over the UK. It represents their learning curve over many years which Becta has taken and tailored specifically for schools. This has resulted in a set of processes and tools for you to use ‘off the shelf’.

The emphasis of FITS is on proactive tasks as well as reactive ones. It views technical support not just as a function responsible for resolving incidents, but as a service provider whose main objective is to prevent incidents from occurring in the first place. We see this as the ultimate goal of technical support and we aim to help you make it happen.

There are many benefits of FITS. Here are just a few.

It gives you the benefit of hindsight over many years of the development of ICT support techniques.
It contains tried and tested processes that have been adapted with the school environment in mind.
It provides simplified and ready to use processes that can be used immediately.
It contains templates, checklists and downloads that can be used as they are or personalised.
It has a quick-start approach to help you make the best use of time and resources available and see quick results.
It separates administrative tasks and technical tasks to help you assign the most appropriate resources.
It helps you keep costs to a minimum.
It helps you protect teachers from having to get too involved in technical support issues.
It helps you measure technical support as shown in our example service report.

Download the free FITS pocket guide here.

Source: Becta.org